A Tutorial
Taking Advantage of the SELECT Tool to
Create a Stylized Abstract Painting
The new select tool in AR3 has many uses. One of them is selecting an area in which to paint while the rest of the canvas is masked. You can select many areas at once to create a complex graphic design with many shapes that can then be painted into while the rest of the canvas is masked. It can dramatically speed up creating, for example, an abstract that has a complex grid of forms.
This tutorial illustrates a simple process in ten steps and spreads over three posts.
STEPS 1 THROUGH 5: The images are in order below. They are best viewed blown up full screen.
Image 1: Use the SELECT tool to start a gridded layout of forms. (You can make squares, rectangles, circles, ovals or any manner of odd shapes.)
Image 2: Complete the grid. This can be accomplished in a matter of minutes with the add, subtract and replace features of the select tool.
Image 3: Inside the grid area, use the ink pen to quickly color in the grid and make a stencil with the “create stencil from layer” feature. This is helpful in case you “deactivate” the live grid at any time.
Image 4: For this painting fill the grid area with a “bump” type paint (glitter and tube paint are best for this) which will be used later to create dimensionality in the forms. I used glitter.
Image 5: On a new layer, create a background (Not necessary now, but I have done so here to give me ideas about how I want to lay out color. You’ll notice later I change my mind about the background.)